The U.S. president also described Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s regime as a foreign terrorist organization.
President Donald Trump said that he was ordering a blockade be imposed off the coast of Venezuela to prevent any sanctioned oil tankers from entering or leaving the country.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Dec. 16. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before—Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
This blockade comes after U.S. forces seized an oil tanker and continued to launch lethal strikes on drug boats speeding across the Caribbean Sea.
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Trump declared Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s regime a foreign terrorist organization.
“The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping,” Trump said. “For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela.”
Maduro spoke at an event on the night of Dec. 16, before Trump’s post went out, denouncing the American advances.
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“Imperialism and the fascist right want to colonize Venezuela to take over its wealth of oil, gas, gold, among other minerals,” he said. “We have sworn absolutely to defend our homeland and in Venezuela peace will triumph.”
Commenting on the move, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said Trump’s blockade off the coast of Venezuela “is unquestionably an act of war.”
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“A war that the Congress never authorized and the American people do not want,” he stated on X, adding that the House will vote Dec. 18 on a resolution pushing for an end to hostilities with Venezuela.
The Maduro regime previously described the United States’ seizure of the tanker filled with Venezuelan crude oil as “international piracy.”
“The true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have been laid bare,” Yván Gil Pinto, Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister, said in a Dec. 11 statement posted to Instagram.
“It is not migration. It is not drug trafficking. It is not democracy. It is not human rights. It has always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people.”
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Still, U.S. officials doubled down on their justification for taking the vessel.
“We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narcoterrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a Dec. 11 news briefing.
It is unclear how exactly the blockade will be imposed. The Epoch Times reached out to the Department of War for more information but received no response.
Andrew Moran, and Reuters contributed to this report.
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